


Frame Me Up On Your Walls

by Deanon



Series: dumb boys [1]
Category: Novus Arx
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, M/M, sort of all three at the same time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-31
Updated: 2015-01-31
Packaged: 2018-03-09 19:20:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3261410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deanon/pseuds/Deanon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gutter gets his own apartment, two hours away, and moves in without telling anyone. In retrospect, he didn't know why he thought that would work.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Frame Me Up On Your Walls

“So,” Teddy said, spinning in a wide circle in the middle of an empty floor, “this is your new place?”

Nothing in his tone was condescending, but Gutter felt a flare of embarrassment anyways. Teddy made the room smaller just _being_ in it, and, on pain of death, he might admit that the room was also just. Not that big in the first place. Even without furniture, the place was nearly claustrophobic. The living room/dining room area was smaller than his old bedroom.

“It’s _amazing_ ,” he snapped defensively. “What are you even doing here? I didn’t give you address.”

Not even looking at him (what an asshole), Teddy said, “Did you really think that would stop Nifty, by the way? He knew the address of this place before you even left. I think he vetted the landlord.” He stopped by the window, peering out. The top pane was level with his eyes, so he had to lean down a little.

Gutter stormed up to him, pulling him around, taking advantage of the fact that Teddy had leaned over a little to look him dead in the eyes and snap, “Did any of you think that I was doing this to get _away from you_?” He shoved at his chest, hard, not that it moved him back more than half a step. He didn’t even hit the window. “This is my apartment! In my city! It’s got nothing to do with any of you!”

He shoved at Teddy again, but this time Teddy seized his wrists before they could connect, and Gutter’s heartbeat sped. This, this was familiar; this was perfect.

He used Teddy’s grasp on his wrists to yank them into the center of the room, hitting one of his knees to unsteady him enough to accomplish this. Stumbling, Teddy moved a few steps, and Gutter pushed his advantage to spin them around and hopefully get Teddy onto the ground.

It didn’t quite work, and they ended up half-grappling, Teddy hunched over and Gutter off-balance and panting. Gutter got flipped, his back slamming hard into the floor (though not, he suspected, as hard as it could have been); the walls shook. Nothing broke, though, so maybe the apartment wasn’t as shoddily built as it first appeared.

Gutter scrambled back up, grinning, heart pounding, eyeing Teddy. They hadn’t wrestled like this in – god, years, maybe. They’d sparred, in every arena imaginable, but they hadn’t gone all-out on each other like this since Teddy had broken Gutter’s wrist and gotten afraid of hurting him, or something.

This was perfect. He loved it. Teddy looked a little _angry_ , even, which didn’t seem to happen as much anymore. Teddy wore anger like a suit of armor, like ice, which worked out because anger made Gutter feel like he was on _fire_. And he was angry now, suddenly, inexplicably. Angry at Teddy being here, in this place that Gutter had come to – to – be someone _else_. At Teddy for following him even when Gutter had made it hard for him. At his fathers for helping him, at this stupid apartment for being so small, at himself for – _everything_.

He charged at Teddy, and Teddy fought back.

Within thirty seconds they were on the ground, which was probably better for the wellbeing of the walls of the apartment. They were as well-matched as they had always been, though in different ways. Gutter was still fast, slipping out of holds and dodging moves entirely; Teddy was still strong, immovable, and nearly preternaturally good at predicting what direction Gutter’s limbs were going to come from. Once they toppled to the ground, grappling, Teddy had the advantage, but he wasn’t pressing it like he would have once. His grip on Gutter’s wrist was so gentle that Gutter twisted out of it with hardly any effort.

Gutter snarled. “Are you _holding back_ on me?” He used his free hand to leverage himself until he could swing over and nearly pin Teddy; he caught an arm swinging at him and twisted it, causing Teddy to cry out.

He didn’t realize he’d loosened his hold on Teddy’s arm until Teddy had already yanked it away, and then Teddy executed one of those fluid moves that seemed completely unstoppable; even in the process of being flipped, Gutter couldn’t get himself out of it. And then Teddy’s full wait was resting on his pelvis, both of his arms pinned, and shit, shit, fuck.

Twisting in Teddy’s grasp didn’t yield anything, and straining his damaged wrist did nothing except make Teddy lean down to spread his weight along his chest, forearms pressing into his arms, making it impossible to move anything but his head. Furious, he jolted his head up into a headbutt, only to hit Teddy’s chin hard. He recoiled so hard the back of his head hit the floor, and Teddy grunted in pain, but didn’t budge.

After that they were both breathing hard, recovering, Teddy slowly shifting his jaw to alleviate the ache. Gutter tried one buck of his hips to see if he could dislodge Teddy, and decided just as quickly that, no, that was not going to work, and he should stop, right now.

Or he could keep going, twist his hips up into friction again, give in to some of the adrenaline still singing under his skin –

But no. No, they weren’t that here. They were rivals, and they were maybe – sort of – friends, but they weren’t anything else.

Gutter dropped the tension in his body, letting himself relax into the floor and blessedly putting a few breaths of space between him and Teddy’s chest. He shut his eyes and breathed through his nose, noticing that the burning anger that had made him leap at Teddy in the first place had burned down to something more manageable. At least getting his ass kicked had at least been good for something.

Five seconds later, he opened his eyes again. “Are you going to let me up?” He asked. “I forfeit, I don’t know if you noticed.”

The gaze Teddy was leveling at him was too intense; Gutter fought the urge to immediately close his eyes again like a child. Teddy was staring at him as though the fight wasn’t over at all, and what did he _want_ from him?

“Please stop running away,” Teddy breathed. He sounded desperate. He sounded destroyed.

“What?” Gutter choked. He felt himself shiver from the intensity of Teddy’s voice, his look, the fact that Teddy was still _pinning him to the carpet_. “I can’t run away, you’re holding me here.” Teddy laughed at that, though it sounded as though it hurt him to do so. After another second, Gutter turned his head and said to the wall of his tiny apartment, “I didn’t come here to run away.”

He didn’t have to look at Teddy to _feel_ the skepticism coming off of him. He pressed his shoulders back into the carpet, but when it became clear that Teddy wasn’t even going to dignify that with a response, Gutter snapped, “I _wasn’t_ running away. I – I needed space.” More silence. Teddy was maybe the only person on the earth who could interrogate him by saying nothing at all. “You know I wanted to see the rest of the world. Be someplace else. Someplace where I’m not the son of some really important people, friends with all these other really important people, expected to marry another important person. Never have anything that wasn’t given to me in some way.”

“You realize,” Teddy said finally, “that that is kind of running away.”

“I wasn’t running away _from you_ ,” Gutter specified, and was rewarded by Teddy genuinely smiling for the first time since he’d shown up at the apartment.

It fell a second later, though. “You could have said something,” Teddy murmured. All at once, Gutter became aware that they were still lying on the floor, Teddy stretched over him, though he’d given Gutter some space. “Mentioned it. Left a note. I know that’s not your style, but – you could have told me not to come after you.”

“I – “ Gutter started, and then realized he had no idea how he was going to end that sentence. Staring up at Teddy now, though, he knew that he wasn’t – _disappointed_ that Teddy had come after him. Was Teddy regretting coming? Maybe this was supposed to be a rescue mission; maybe that was why Teddy had been angry, earlier. “Teddy,” Gutter said. “You can go back, if you want. I – obviously you can see that I’m fine here.”

He wasn’t meeting Teddy’s eyes, which might have been how he missed the exact moment Teddy decided to kiss him.

It started out gentle, soft, and relatively chaste. Gutter was still trying to take this in when Teddy broke the kiss, moved back a bare inch. Gutter could feel every breath that he took, too-deep, too-fast.

The tension held for a long moment before Gutter surged up and kissed him, filthy, desperate, everything Teddy’s kiss hadn’t been. He was afraid for a second that Teddy wouldn’t return it, but then Gutter’s shoulders were being pushed back into the ground and his wrists were both pinned down and Teddy’s tongue was twisting around his.

God, they hadn’t done this in a while, either, and Gutter had managed to forget again just how _good_ it could be. All the tension from their fight came back, twisting his stomach, making him arch and pull against Teddy’s pin on him, and when he didn’t give it was even _better_. Teddy refused to let him go, and Gutter felt his mind go fuzzy as he sank into the kiss.

Everything came into focus again when Teddy pulled away from him. Gutter’s eyes opened so fast that his vision blurred, and he was in the process of sitting up so that they could _finish what they started_ , _damn it_ when Teddy pulled his arm to bring him fully upright.

“Gutter,” Teddy said, too low and so soft it _ached_. Gutter leaned over and bit at the skin on the side of Teddy’s neck, then kissed it, then bit it again, aiming to distract Teddy from whatever he was trying to say. He didn’t want to hear it.

Teddy’s breath went unsteady for a second, but then he insisted, _“Gutter_.”

“ _What_ ,” Gutter snapped into Teddy’s neck, and Teddy, the asshole, laughed at him.

“Are we really going to do this on the floor of your living room?” He leaned down and kissed the skin under Gutter’s ear, making everything feel unbearably intimate. “Only, your mattress was missing from your dad’s house, so I _know_ you somehow managed to steal it.”

Gutter pulled back (though not very far), affronted. “I didn’t steal it, it’s my mattress.”

Only as he was saying this, Teddy had used the extra space to wrap his arms around Gutter’s waist more firmly and lift him. Gutter said, “Wait, no, put me down – “ and then wrapped his legs around Teddy’s waist anyways, which ended that train of thought. Also, all other trains of thought. He tightened his legs and his head fell down to rest on Teddy’s shoulder, where he could feel Teddy shivering slightly.

“I don’t think I can walk like this,” Teddy murmured in his ear, his hands slipping down Gutter’s waist to grab his ass and hoist him up higher. Teddy gasped out at the contact, and then immediately tried to take a step towards the bedroom anyways. Gutter, just because he could, rocked his hips forward. Teddy nearly dropped him.

“Okay,” Gutter said, although he rolled his hips again because it was _delicious_ , held up against Teddy like this. “Okay, you can put me down.”

“Just for that, no,” Teddy said, and look a step down the hall.

Gutter jostled, and cracked up, laughing as he shifted his hips again and said, “I swear to God if you drop me – “

“Better hold on then.” Teddy was walking steadily, supporting his weight, which was equal parts embarrassing and embarrassingly hot. Gutter leaned forward and bit at his neck again, his ear, his jaw. Every time Teddy stumbled he snickered, and then got cut off by Teddy resettling him around his waist and stepping forward again.

A good way into giving Teddy a hickey, Gutter very abruptly got dropped, and a few things happened very fast. His legs didn’t unwrap from where they were locked around Teddy’s waist, so Teddy went crashing down onto the mattress with him, Gutter bit Teddy’s neck harder than he meant to, and Teddy’s weight crushed all of the air out of Gutter.

“Ow,” Gutter choked, and then, “Fuck, _ow_ , you _dropped_ me – “

“I didn’t drop you, I put you down, you just didn’t let _go_ , am I bleeding?” Teddy put a hand to his neck and they both managed to disentangle their limbs and sit up.

Gutter leaned over, looking in the fading light at Gutter’s neck. “You, uh, might be bleeding, a little. Sorry.”

“Fucking vampire,” Teddy grumbled, and then looked up at Gutter’s offended expression and burst out laughing.

A second later, Gutter joined him, and they leaned together, foreheads pressed into each other, shaking with laughter. Teddy’s hands slid up Gutter’s arms, grabbed his shoulders, and pushed him back into the bed. He kissed up his chest, his laughing in between kisses.

The second Teddy’s weight started pressing into him, though, Gutter whispered “Oh no you don’t,” and flipped them, climbing over Teddy to straddle his waist. He grinned down at Teddy, expecting him to look frustrated and amused at finding their positions reversed again.

But Teddy looked – he looked – he didn’t look _frustrated_.

The closest Gutter had seen to this expression on Teddy’s face was when he’d said that he wasn’t going to leave Gutter, and that was –

Gutter leaned down to kiss him, just to make him stop looking like that.

He made it rough, after that, biting at Teddy’s lips, grinding his hips down hard, stripping his shirt off and then his pants right after that. Teddy’s hands ran up his chest, burning hot, and then back down, settling on his waist. He was still staring up at Gutter. Gutter squeezed his eyes shut, shudders wracking through his whole body.

“This works better if you’re naked too,” he whispered, and then regretted speaking, because his voice was wrecked, choked. He started pulling Teddy’s shirt off, was relieved when Teddy lifted his arms to help him.

Time started moving a little strangely – Teddy was taking his pants off, and then his boxers were off, his skin burning hot under Gutter’s hands, and then Gutter’s boxers were off too and he was grinding down, pressing Teddy’s dick against his ass and god, fuck, god, it was so good.

“Yeah,” Teddy said, and Gutter realized that he’d said all that out loud. The hands on his waist had drifted up his chest again, pulling Gutter down by the shoulders. There were hands stroking his hair, and then on his face as Teddy kissed him, as Teddy’s hips pushed up against him. A shudder ran through Gutter’s entire body. “Did you,” Teddy murmured into his mouth. “Do you have anything up here yet, for?”

Gutter broke away from the kiss. “Fuck,” he swore, with feeling. “No, I haven’t gotten anything yet, I – “ He tugged himself out of Teddy’s hold, suddenly seized by a different, better idea anyways. He started moving down his body. “I wanted to do this anyways,” he said, grinning up at Teddy.

Unexpectedly, Teddy grabbed him and pulled him back up. “Don’t go anywhere,” he said, his eyes shining, his voice thin. He kissed Gutter before he could respond to that, and then ground his hips again. “I can – oh, god,” he cut off, as the tip of him slid against Gutter’s opening.

 _You’re not doing anything dry_ , Gutter drew in a gasp to say, and found that he couldn’t, because the _thought_ was – god, it would hurt, it would hurt way too much and he knew it, but it’d be so intense, and he was grinding down against Teddy without even meaning to. “What?” was all that he managed to gasp out.

“I can probably – like this,” he said, and guided Gutter’s hips down until he was settled totally onto him, and then drove his hips up, sliding against Gutter. The friction was – it felt electric, too much and too little all at once, heightened so much by the way Teddy shivered under him.

“Fuck,” Gutter whispered. He sat up a little to give himself a better angle, and Teddy followed, kissing him again, swallowing Gutter’s groaned, “oh, god, yes, you’re a genius, that’s, god.” He sat up fully and Teddy went with him, and this angle was _perfect_. He rocked his hips and leaned down and wrapped his hands around Teddy, raked his nails down him, bit at his shoulder to try to stem the steady stream of curses that fell out of his mouth every time they did this.

“Gutter.” Teddy’s voice was raw. One of his hands stayed on Gutter’s hips, but the other one slipped up, ran through his hair, cupped his jaw with shaking fingers as Teddy pressed him down and struggled to breathe. Teddy pulled him forward into a kiss that was all breath and tongue and this small, shaking noise as he jerked and came.

Gutter’s hips kept moving even after Teddy stopped matching his movements, and he was in the middle of trying to fit a hand between them when Teddy pulled him back onto the bed.

Teddy answered his vague, questioning noise (Gutter was surprised he could hear the questioning underneath all the _please please please_ that he could feel humming under his skin) by getting his own hand between them, wrapping it around Gutter with no buildup at all.

Gutter _dissolved_. He was aware of getting rolled over at some point, of Teddy being over him and around him and of lips on his neck, his cheek, his forehead. He heard himself cry out as though it was someone else entirely making the noises, felt Teddy’s skin under his hands and on his body and god – _god_ –

He drifted back down, shivering, with Teddy’s body still draped entirely over him, pressing kisses periodically to Gutter’s shoulder. Awareness came back slowly – that all his blankets were still in boxes, that it was fully dark now, that Teddy was crushing him.

“You’re heavy, get off of me,” he murmured, and Teddy moved the bare minimum necessary to shift himself off of Gutter without actually allowing Gutter to get up.

They breathed, slowly, drifting off to sleep despite the early hour. Teddy’s hands drifted, hesitantly, from Gutter’s hair, face, neck, to his waist, and then back up to his face. His legs were still thrown over Gutter, and they were sticky and sweaty and it should probably have been disgusting but Gutter was, on the whole, surprisingly fine with it.

He was surprisingly fine with everything, and there were alarms in his head that just couldn’t quite raise any kind of concern from him when his whole body was relaxed as it was. They were saying something about how that had probably been the best sex of his life so far, and it had technically been a handjob from the best friend who was going to go back home tomorrow, and he should be concerned. He should be so, so concerned.

“The blankets are still in those boxes,” he said instead, his voice barely audible even to him.

“I’ll keep you warm,” Teddy said, and Gutter wanted to either make fun of him or kiss him for that, but he was already asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> For Ashley


End file.
